In December 2024, Palmerston Island was officially declared rat free, with the need for ongoing monitoring and surveillance to maintain the island’s rat free status. The Island Administration and the community have implemented a quarterly monitoring and survey program throughout the year on Home Island and Cooks Islet.
In March this year, the first rat monitoring program was held on Home Island where Motion detectors and chew cards filled with peanut butter were secured to trees and monitored over seven days, with bait stations checked every 2–3 days.
On Cooks Islet, the monitoring program also included a bird and vegetation survey by two teams, the Palmerston Island Administration staff, and students of Palmerston Lucky School assisted Julianna Marsters, the island’s Biosecurity officer.
The teams also spent the night on Cooks Islet to conduct a coconut crab survey using the NES guidelines and methodology. Each transect team set up bait stations of coconut halves along with cameras for monitoring after sunset and throughout the night. The data collected saw five juvenile crabs and one adult recorded by the teams. The 3 females and 2 male juveniles were measured between 21 – 35mm, with the adult male surveyed outside the transect, measuring 75mm and estimated to be between 50 – 55 years of age.
The outcome from the survey was positive with new plant growth observed within the transects where ten bird species were recorded. In 2017, a survey was conducted by NES where vegetation growth was minimal, and bird numbers were considered poor due to the large infestation of rats.
The most positive outcome from the survey is the detection of zero (0) rats on the both Home Island and Cooks Islet.
